Human rights

Human rights and media

"As journalists you are obliged to tell people also the things, they do not want to hear about, but you should see the things from above and sometimes risk your own popularity for the sake of objectivity and ethics.“ Karol Ježík (founder of Slovak newspaper SME well known during the reign of Vladimir Mečiar in the 90s)

The last part of this module is dedicated to the relationship between media and human rights. The relationship between these two actors is quite specific as the media profession is on the one hand totally dependent on respecting “its” human rights - freedom of expression is one of the oldest human right and proper media work is based on it. On the other hand, media coverage greatly influences the public. It acts as multiplier and formative agent on public attitudes in both, positive and negative ways.

Media representatives should be cautious when they inform on the issues and should take into account its human rights dimension, human dignity and equality as two basic human rights values.

The problem is that the media have slipped to a more superficial area recently and rather than for fair-mindedness they look for simple solutions of complicated problems and sensational headlines. It means that they use generalisations, stereotypes, prejudices and other kinds of manipulative techniques and publish literally what people want to read or hear, not what is ethical or right. Internet per-click marketing contributes to this very significantly.

Even though, the internet pushes media to be superficial and makes them too dependent on advert revenues, it brings new opportunities, like the use of various accessible channels such as Facebook, Twitter, blogging, which gives even less skilled individuals with few basic resources the ability to spread information around.